Nigeria will head into the 2014 World Cup finals as one of Africa’s biggest hopes, but their preparations for football’s premier tournament have not exactly gone to plan.

The Super Eagles were held to a 2-2 draw by Scotland at Craven Cottage in London last month and failed to score against Greece in Philadelphia on June 3. On Saturday, the African giants gave a limp performance and went down 2-1 to the USA in Jacksonville.

Stephen Keshi's side have not exactly looked very impressive in their three warm-up matches and will head to Brazil with doubts hanging over them. The display against the USA was especially underwhelming, but forward Victor Moses thinks otherwise.

The 23-year-old, who joined Chelsea from Wigan Athletic in the summer of 2012 and was loaned out to Liverpool for the 2013-14 campaign, wrote on Sportlobster.com: ‘disappointed with the result against america but good preparation for us. We are ready #Nigeria'

Nigeria have been drawn in Group B alongside Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iran. While the South American giants are expected to win all three of their group games, the runners-up spot is up for grabs.

The Nigerians will fancy their chances of finishing second, given the players they have in their squad. Keshi is a well-heralded coach and his 4-3-3 formation will see the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations champions play some good attacking football.

Interestingly, Nigeria have not a World Cup game in the last 16 years, and that will weigh heavily on their minds when they take on Iran in their opening game in Brazil.

Subhankar Mondal

A football journalist based in Wakefield, Subhankar Mondal has previously worked for Goal.com International and Skysports.com, and has had his sports articles published in The Guardian and The Observer. He has also been on the BBC in the past and his name once found its way to the pages of the World Soccer magazine. He was recently cited in a major Louis van Gaal biography.